Processed Foods Bad for the Bones
Making a steady diet out of processed foods can lower bone quality and contribute to back pain and osteoporosis.
The new study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, “Dietary Advanced Glycation End Products Have Sex‐ and Age‐Dependent Effects on Vertebral Bone Microstructure and Mechanical Function in Mice,” appeared in the November 21, 2017 edition of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
Svenja Illien‐Jünger, Ph.D., with the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopaedics at Mount Sinai and co-author on the research, told OTW, “Typical ‘Western diet’ foods are often processed (especially fast food which typically has been heat treated, pasteurized, dried, smoked or fried) and often contain high amounts of so-called advanced glycation end products (AGEs).”
“Diets high in AGEs have been linked to weight gain and diabetes. In this study we examined if diet also affects vertebral bone health by assessing the extent to which changes in diet could decrease vertebral fractures and prevent bone loss as people age.”
The authors wrote, “Female and male mice were fed low‐AGE (L‐AGE) or high‐AGE (H‐AGE) isocaloric diets for 6 and 18 months and multiple measurements of bone structure and function were taken.”
“AGE levels in serum and cortical vertebrae were increased only for 6‐month‐old H‐AGE female mice while blood glucose and body weight remained normal for all animals. When fed an H‐AGE diet, 6‐month‐old female mice had inferior vertebral trabecular structure with decreased bone mineral density (BMD) and bone volume fraction.”
“Biomechanical testing and analytical modeling further showed functional deterioration in 6‐month‐old H‐AGE females with reduced shear and compression moduli, and maximum load to failure. At 18 months, H‐AGE mice of both sexes had significant but small decreases in cortical BMD and thickness, yet functional biomechanical behaviors were not distinguishable from other aging changes.”
“In this study we compared the effect of diet on female and male mice in two age groups ‘young’ (6 month) and “old” (18 month). We fed mice two diets, which only differed in the amount of AGEs (AGEs were increased by heat treating). Half of the mice were fed a diet high in AGEs while the other half had a diet lower in AGEs. The effects of diets on vertebral bones were analyzed at 6 and 18 months.”
“This is the first study that shows that diets high AGEs can directly alter vertebral bone quality, with bone loss and inferior biomechanical properties. Importantly, diets had a stronger influence on female than on male mice. Our study emphasizes the importance of nutrition in promoting spinal health and susceptibility to injury.”
“Our study suggests that chronic consumption of processed foods negatively impacts bone quality with age, and potentially could cause back pain and spine disease including osteoporosis. Our results could serve as a warning to young women to be especially careful of what they eat, as specific foods could accelerate the aging of their bones and contribute to debilitating back problems in the future.”
“We previously showed that diabetes, which also led to AGE accumulation in the spine, was associated with vertebral pathology and intervertebral disc degeneration.”
“We found that these pathologies were partially mitigated by oral administration of FDA approved anti-AGE and anti-inflammatory drugs. While our study suggested that drug treatment is possible, more studies are required to identify the underlying mechanisms, so that specific therapeutics can be developed. Therefore, at this point we recommend educating patients that improved diet can be used as preventative treatments for spinal pathologies.”
